Many areas of Orange County, Durham County and the rest of central North Carolina are again under a flash flood warning and storm advisory on Wednesday night after historic rainfall and catastrophic flooding just days before.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Durham at 8:37 p.m. Wednesday, indicating flood waters are rising with rainfall from a passing storm system. The warning — which urges people in lower-lying areas to seek higher ground and urges travelers to avoid any standing water — is set to last through 1:45 a.m. on Thursday.
The area was already under a severe thunderstorm warning from the storm system, as well as much of northeastern Chatham County.
The Town of Chapel Hill shared an alert at 8:44 p.m. saying several roads are being blocked by high waters. They included:
- South Estes Drive at Willow Drive
- Umstead Drive at Greene Street
- West Franklin St. at Mallette Street
- West Rosemary Street at Pritchard Avenue
- Hillsborough Street near Bolinwood Drive
By 10:25 p.m., however, all of those roads had reopened. Additional updates from Chapel Hill can be found on its dedicated Emergency Updates webpage.
The local government urged people to avoid those areas and treat the roads as closed, reminding them to never drive, bike or walk through floodwater or going around barricades meant to close roads.
Durham Police, meanwhile, also shared several roads to avoid because of flood waters. They include 15-501 at Garrett Road, Anderson Road at Chapel Hill Road, North Duke Street at West Morgan Street and the 4200 block of University Drive.
Wednesday’s rain comes after Sunday’s record-setting rainfall from Tropical Depression Chantal with some areas of Orange County seeing more than 10 inches of rain in the evening, which triggered intense flash flooding. Emergency personnel conducted dozens of water rescues in areas, with the dangerous waters wrecking homes, businesses and key infrastructure.
Orange County is maintaining an emergency mass-care shelter at Smith Middle School in Chapel Hill for people displaced by floodwaters. The local government also announced plans to open an assistance center offering further recovery resources on Thursday at the Drakeford Library Complex in Carrboro.
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